CHURCH attendance has plummeted to a record low in Wales as vicars warn the church must wake up to the stark reality or accept the death of the church.

Bishop of Bangor Rt Revd Andy John said the Church must take action as attendance plummets

On average, just 29,019 people attended church on a Sunday in Wales – with latest figures revealing the number of people attending has halved since 1990.

It is the equivalent of the population of Pontefract in West Yorkshire, or Colwyn Bay, Conway.

Wales makes up just part of Britain’s picture of apathy, with Church of England Sunday worshipers dropping to its lowest ever levels of 760,000.

In a stark warning the Revd Steven Bunting told the annual meeting of the governing body of the Church in Wales that unless the Church wakes up to the reality the planned celebrations for the Church in Wales’s centenary in 2020 will be “just a few cucumber sandwiches at a wake”.

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With less than one per cent of Wales’ three million residents attending church, leading priests have warned changes must be made to get the 57 per cent of Welsh people who identify as Christian back into church.

The Church in Wales report found on average just 3,896 people attended weekday only services, with numbers down for most services including weddings and baptisms.

Weddings have fallen by six per cent since 2014, with 2,848 weddings last year compared to 3,015 in 2015.

The number of people taking communion at services such as Christmas and Easter has also plummeted.

One of the only figures on the rise was the number of funerals with 6,446 funerals in 2015, compared to 6,396 in 2014.

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We should read these figures with a heavy heart. It is a wake up call to us

Bishop of Bangor Rt Revd Andy John

The Church in its annual membership and finance reports said: “The figures this year confirm a long-term trend: membership is down, particularly amongst young people; financial figures remain sound.

“But people are the lifeblood of the church, not money: without people there is no church. Since 1990 our average adult Sunday attendance has fallen by nearly 54 per cent.”

Bishop of Bangor Rt Revd Andy John told Express.co.uk the Church must make action.

He said: “It’s about being honest and saying this is not good. We can’t look at these figures year after year and think by doing the same thing the statistics will change.

“We should read these figures with a heavy heart. It is a wake up call to us.

CHURCH IN WALES

Bishop of Bangor Rt Revd Andy John said the figures are a "wake up call"

CHURCH IN WALES

The Church in Wales report found on average just 3,896 people attended weekday only services

“Steven Bunting was right. The decline will come and we will fall off the edge of the cliff and there will no ground to sustain us. We need to start to be really imaginative and not just do the traditional thing.”

With less than two per cent of the population attending church, Sunday attendances have fallen to 760,000.

The Church has foud itself in this position because, according to Bishop John, communities have changed.

He said: “I think there are two or three things. Society has changed, people like to use their Sundays differently. People have a wide range of things to do instead whether it’s seeing family, going shopping or different activities and we are in a world where we have to to compete for people’s time. People do different things now.

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On average, just 29,019 people attended church on a Sunday in Wales

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Less than one per cent of Wales’ three million residents attend church

“The second thing is we need to be honest and traditional church does not always meet everyone’s hopes and aspirations. They are not uninterested in their spiritual needs but sometimes traditional church does not work for them.

“Thirdly we need to be creative about what we offer as an alternative. If Sunday morning does not work, what can we do during the week that is different and interesting. As the Church in Wales changes the sort of provisions mid-week will be bigger and better and we need to recognise that Sunday as the church’s day will become a thing of the past.”

A major part of the problem is that churchgoers no longer feel compelled to attend after generations before them were forced to make their way to church in their Sunday best as well as a change in trading laws giving people more things to do on a weekend.

The Church is also well aware it must compete for time in people’s busy lives and the need to attract youngsters through its doors.

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Church weddings have fallen by six per cent since 2014

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Bangor Cathdral: Bishop John says cathedrals are an area for growth

The number of under 18s attending the Church in Wales on average has fallen five percent from 6,158 in 2014 to 5,827 in 2015.

Bishop John said: “With young people, the competition has never been fiercer and it’s up to us to step up to the plate and provide an environment where people are not compelled to come but come if they want. We have to do something that makes people want to yes.

“With young people we now hold cafe church, where instead of coming to some cold building they come and have coffee and cake and can sit in groups and chat. We have teams leading prayer and discussions that invite reflection and different subjects. But it is faithful to Christianity, it’s just differently packaged and presented.

“This drift has taken place over the last 30 years. People used to go to church three times on a Sunday and didn’t enjoy it. Now if people don’t enjoy something, they don’t do to and there is no obligation. It means those who come come are doing it because they want to and they enjoy it and it means we have a commitment from them that cannot be imposed.”

The dawn of social media has also impacted the number of churchgoers with worshippers finding online communities that are easier to fit into their modern busy lives.

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As a result the Church in Wales is undergoing a major restructure with ministry teams replacing old parishes and a bigger focus on midweek services and outreach.

Bishop John said the church is constantly looking for areas of growth with cathedral services experiencing a boom in numbers in England.

Church of England figures reveal on average 36,700 people attended cathedral services each week in 2015, an increase of 18 per cent from 31,200 in 2005.

He said: “One area for future growth is cathedrals. The reason why is they can do things really well, with big music performances and people like to go to cathedral services for certain events.

“The future for the Church in Wales is a good one but it will be very different and will feel very different and will be less obvious because Sunday worship will become less significant and midweek and variety will be the way things go.

“We have to look at what we do well. The cathedral at Bangor on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will have fewer people than it has over the last two or three years but when we do the Thousand Candles Carol Service two weeks before, there will be 1,000 people there. People come and it’s very atmospheric, there’s mulled wine and there’s a real atmosphere and it’s of very high quality.

“That tells us what people expect and it is up to the church to step up to the plate.”